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An Investigation of Power Distance Value and Endorsement of the Great Man Theory Through American Social Identities

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An Investigation of Power Distance Value and Endorsement of the Great Man Theory Through American Social Identities Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses Dissertations & Theses 2019 United I Stand: An Investigation of Power Distance Value and Endorsement of the Great Man Theory Through American Social Identities Jeffrey M. Girton Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change Follow this and additional works at: https://aura.antioch.edu/etds Part of the American Studies Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, Organization Development Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons Recommended Citation Girton, Jeffrey M., "United I Stand: An Investigation of Power Distance Value and Endorsement of the Great Man Theory Through American Social Identities" (2019). Dissertations & Theses. 523. https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/523 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses at AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations & Theses by an authorized administrator of AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. United I Stand: An Investigation of Power Distance Value and Endorsement of the Great Man Theory Through American Social Identities Jeffrey M. Girton ORCID Scholar ID# 0000-0003-1446-591X A Dissertation Submitted to the PhD in Leadership and Change Program of Antioch University in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2019 This dissertation has been approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Leadership and Change, Graduate School of Leadership and Change, Antioch University. Dissertation Committee Lize Booysen, DBL, Committee Chair Carol Baron, PhD, Committee Member Brandelyn Tosolt, PhD, Committee Member Copyright 2019 Jeffrey M. Girton All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements Some people celebrate a mid-life crisis with a red sporty convertible. My crisis was celebrated with the birth of my child and going back to grad school. While my research cannot reliably validate this claim, the convertible option would have been more cost effective. It would not, however, have been as meaningful, nor fulfilling. Had I gone with the other option, my family and friends would have likely mocked me and groaned, but it would have been easier on them. The title of this dissertation, my magnum opus, is an homage to the lessons I have personally learned as a White man living in a kaleidoscopic world. Never more than through this research and my personal experience has the fallacy of rugged individualism become clearer to me. This dissertation has been made possible by countless people through cups of coffee, pints of other beverages, classroom discussions, text messages, and soul search. Specifically, I must acknowledge three women who have had a direct role in supporting me through service and sacrifice. My mother and wife have contributed to this dissertation by affording me the time and space to complete my studies at great cost of their own. Most importantly, I acknowledge my writing partner and daughter who sat on my knee and shared her strength with me so I could finish. Lastly, I would like to thank my favorite critical thinker and masterful storyteller, Malcolm Gladwell. His ability to take complex matters and extract meaningful bites of appetizing information was the catalyst for my graduate studies; as well as my introduction to the concept of power distance more than a decade ago. i Abstract Four decades of research on power distance have been applied to cross-cultural leadership studies on an inter-national level. A quantitative investigation was conducted to analyze a uniquely American narrative of power distance, which was developed through a post-structural epistemology. Using ANTi-History theory, endorsement of the Great Man Theory was argued to be a leadership ethos that is related to American power distance value. The GLOBE project’s Power Distance Subscale, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s Achievement Versus Ascription Scale, and an author-developed scale for self-reported endorsement of the Great Man Theory was deployed to investigate culturally contingent leadership ethos on an intra-national level within a representative U.S. American sample. The study was able to validate the Social Authority Scale, using items from the Power Distance Subscale and Achievement Versus Ascription Scale. Demographic measurements of 645 participants from a convenience sample were analyzed to understand how social identity influenced this leadership construct. Significant variations were found based upon American social identities. Implications for intra-national cross-cultural leadership theory are discussed, as well as empirical and theoretical based implications for leadership practitioners. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ Keywords: Power Distance, Culture, Great Man Theory, Leadership, Social justice Leadership, ANTi-History, GLOBE, Social Knowledge, Achievement Ascription, Post- Structural, Work Ethic, American Ethos, Employee Engagement, Supervision, Organizational Leadership ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. i Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Chapter I: Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Power Distance and Leadership ............................................................................. 3 Culturally Endorsed Implicit Leadership Theory .................................................. 4 Purpose and Research Question ............................................................................. 7 Rationale, Scope, and Significance of This Research ............................................ 9 Discussion of Terminology .................................................................................. 11 Methodological Approach ................................................................................... 14 Research Design ................................................................................................... 16 Limitations ........................................................................................................... 17 Preview ................................................................................................................ 18 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 19 Chapter II: Literature Review ........................................................................................... 21 Culture and Power Distance................................................................................. 22 Outcomes of Power Distance ............................................................................... 28 Leadership ............................................................................................................ 32 Achievement Versus Ascription as Power Distance ............................................ 34 The Great Man Theory ......................................................................................... 36 ANTi-History’s Reassembled Narrative .............................................................. 43 The Great Man Theory Leadership Narrative ...................................................... 50 The Great Man Theory Leadership Narrative Summary ..................................... 54 Reassembly .......................................................................................................... 69 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 76 Chapter III: Methodology ................................................................................................. 78 Research Approach and Justification ................................................................... 78 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 80 Method ................................................................................................................. 82 Survey Construction............................................................................................. 82 Survey Sample ..................................................................................................... 91 Procedures ............................................................................................................ 92 Consent and Security ........................................................................................... 93 Analysis................................................................................................................ 95 Lessons from the Pilot Study ............................................................................... 97 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................
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